


Poets

by hellomoon



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:43:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23249428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellomoon/pseuds/hellomoon
Summary: Ryan and Shane being good dads.
Relationships: Ryan Bergara/Shane Madej
Comments: 4
Kudos: 64





	Poets

**Author's Note:**

> I was watching the Edgar Allen Poe q&a and this tidbit of Shane saying he wouldn’t be happy if his daughter bought a poet home cause he doesn’t like poets got me thinking.

“Shane!”  
“I’m coming, I’m coming!”  
Ryan huffed and leaned on the banister out of exhaustion. He noted that he was getting winded quicker than he used to. He wasn’t alone in that. His face pulled into an affectionate smirk as he heard the telltale sounds of his husband shuffling down the stairs. Ryan turned to meet him.  
“I thought you’d tip over,” he challenged, reaching up to fix the graying hair crowding Shane’s forehead. He had been expecting a retort and instead he’d been fixed with an impossibly soft look. It still took his breath away and gave him a funny feeling in his stomach. They weren’t the same boys that sat next to each other at work when this kind of look wasn’t as brave and would make Ryan’s heart ache. He didn’t even seem to be able to remember a time before when he could just bring their lips together when Ryan couldn’t stand to meet Shane’s gaze any longer. He was getting sappier than he used to be. He got one last little peck and a barely breathed “I love you so much.” He wasn’t the only one. 

“Come on!” He was abruptly yanked out of his floating feeling and he and Shane turned around with guilty looks on their faces. Their daughter Anna, in all of her glory and wrath stood glowering at them with her arms crossed. She must’ve gotten that from him. Shane had gone into full placating hands and soothing but she wasn’t having any of it.  
“You promised you’d clean, and here you are making out!” 

Shane was profusely apologizing, the softie. He had somehow negotiated being the nice dad into his contract without telling Ryan.  
“You shouldn’t talk to your parents that way, doll” he tried.  
“Dad!” He was so proud of this little pain he had raised.  
“I promised we cleaned we were just celebrating,” he tried.  
“Celebrating cleaning ?” She asked incredulously. “What is that?!” Shane blanched. It wasn’t Ryan’s fault, he was left unsupervised and of course he put up a few unsolved posters around the house.  
“The teens love me, and I can’t blame them” Ryan said in his sleaziest voice.  
“Take them down!”  
“You should really quiet down before the neighbors call the cops on us”  
“Well they should cause I’m gonna murder you two!”  
“Why’s she gonna murder you?” Their son, jake, who was a little more like Shane, quiet and levelheaded, was never fazed by his sister.  
“She doesn’t like that I’m enhancing her date!” Shane was starting to look sick. Their son walked around him.  
“Oh.” He pondered the situation and took a look at the posters. “I really like them,” he told Ryan. Ryan ruffled his hair. The sweet kid was always on his side. 

He hadn’t been allowed to watch Unsolved yet and settled for going ghost hunting in their scary basement with his papa. Why they had a scary basement you’d have to blame Shane who wanted to pay homage to the horror movie genre. But his knees shook at the prospect of his baby girl bringing a guy home. He would also fret in the bleachers as Anna sank shot after shot into the hoop as Ryan screamed and cheered “Thats my girl, show em mija!” Later in the car Shane woukd accused them of conspiring against him, “I cannot believe you made her into a basketball star, my daughter,” only betrayed by how carefully he was clutching her trophy. But nothing had turned his face as green as when she had told them that she was dating someone. He was also torn about disappointing his baby girl. Ryan had patted his back. It felt good when he could turn the tables on Shane. Ryan had been a great dad, he asked her to bring him to dinner and offered to clean the house and not be completely embarrassing. They all knew he couldn’t keep that last one but she had accepted begrudgingly and only grown more and more concerned as the day got closer. Shane sent her to work ripping the posters down and shredding them to get her mind off of it which she happily accepted. 

He jumped when the screaming started up again minutes later.  
“What is that!”  
“Uh... well you see- well I thought well” Shane looked faint. Ryan almost felt sorry for him. He cut in.  
“It’s a lasagna. That your dad made. With love.”  
“Why does it look like that?”  
“That’s the love” he snickered and earned himself a glare from Shane.  
“You cannot make him eat that”  
“You cannot make me eat that” their son butted in.  
“Should’ve maybe stuck to the pies, Shane.”  
Their family stood hovering over a deformed and boiling lasagna. Then the doorbell rang.  
Four pairs of concerned eyes met over the lasagna.  
“I haven’t changed!” hissed their daughter.  
“Papa, dad looks more worried than Anna does.”  
“Yes he does!” Ryan chimed in as Anna tumbled up the stairs as fast as she could. “I’ll get the door then?”

Ryan and Shane opened the door to a mop of black hair. He was standing even below Ryan’s line of sight and couldn’t process what he was seeing. He knew Shane would have this problem and he’d have to make up for it but he suddenly couldn’t control his body anymore. The two of them stood side by side at the open door with their mouths hanging open at an empty mid that must’ve wandered into their doorway. He had on a huge flannel and nail polish as black as he was pale and ripped skinny jeans and spiky boots. Shane tried to remember if Ryan believed in vampires. He felt his son tugging on his hand. He must’ve come to rescue them from theirselves. Or warn him of the vampire. Ryan must believe in vampires shane deduced since or he was standing frozen next to him. So he steeled himself to handle this. 

“Hello,” he ventured.  
“Hey.” Shane couldn’t hear past the thick California accent that had just existed his mouth and struggled to keep up. He always knew Ryan was outside of his comfort zone of California boy but this...  
The thought of Ryan in board shorts in his early days calling him “brah” snapped him out of his stupor. He wondered if this vampire had cursed Ryan into staying frozen instead of pursuing his dreams of being a cool dad. Shane had fully shifted into unsolved mode, he had to drag Ryan out of panic and block out the creepy bullshit. Easy.  
“I’m Shane. This is Ryan. We’re Anna’s dads. It’s nice to meet you.”  
“My name’s Chase.” He held his hand out to shake. Shane took it. His hand felt warm enough. He probably wasn’t going to meet a vampire for the first time in his 50’s in the suburbs anyways.  
“Why don’t you come in, we’ve kept you at the door long enough”  
He felt his hand get squeezed from both sides as Ryan turned to him with wide eyes. Bingo. The men in his life were ridiculous.  
“Don’t worry about him, he’s a nervous father,” Shane reassured Chase. Ryan let out a squeak. “And this is Anna’s little brother, Jake.” the brave little guy held out his hand. Anna finally emerged in a nicer shirt Ryan had helped her pick out and enough product in her hair to fill the room with unbreathable fumes. “Do you wanna eat dinner first, Anna?” She nodded silently. She sat next to chase but had chosen to stare straight forward. Ryan had disappeared into the kitchen.  
“Ah, I’ll go check on dinner,” Shane excused himself quickly and set off. He found Ryan knocking back a bottle of wine.  
“Do you need a glass?” Shane laughed. His lover turned to him with wide eyed panic.  
“He’s not a vampire, Ryan.”  
“Hey!” Ryan said indignantly. “Then why’s he dressed like one?” He whispered conspiratorially. “And you invited him inside our house, Shane!” He went to take another big swig of wine before Shane stopped him.  
“I need my big strong husband sober if he’s gonna defeat a vampire. Or you know our daughters teenage boyfriend.” Ryan’s grip on the bottle tightened. He figured. “She’s still your little girl, Ry, I’m sure she picked well. If not, we can torch him. Come on.” Ryan folded and followed him out whispering that he had promised they could torch the vampire but they would need wooden stakes to actually kill him. 

Shane set down the lasagna only to be informed that Chase was vegetarian. Of course.  
“Why didn’t you tell me he was vegetarian?” He asked a panicked Anna as they regrouped in the kitchen, and tried to subdue his boys with very rational thoughts, “Look he’s a vegetarian he can’t be a vampire now, can he?” He went back out to the bewildered vampire.  
“Don’t worry, my husbands making mac and cheese which you said you could have right, good, so while that’s happening, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself?” He managed through Anna’s glares.  
“Well I’m a poet.” Anna looked appalled at Shane who had popped up out of his seat and knocked his chair back.  
“I have to go check on the mac and cheese” he said and fled after placing his chair back.  
“Ryan, he’s a poet!” He whispered emphatically. Ryan dropped his spoon into the pot of pasta and tried to fish it back out.  
“He’s a what? Why? How? No! That’s worse than vampires, we swore we would never ever let our kids bring a poet home!”  
“I know! It’s atrocious! No daughter of mine will marry a poet!”  
“Holy shit, I’m so turned on” Ryan managed fo get out before he dropped his spoon back into the pot when Anna bust through the door.  
“What are you two doing?” She shook her finger at them. “Let me handle this and do not talk to him!”  
“Anna, darling, he’s a poet!”  
“Do you like poetry or something Anna?”  
“A poet! Anna, doll-“  
“Leave. Now.” They shared a look and shuffled back outside.  
“Well Anna’s going to finish up in there, sorry about all this” Shane apologized in a measured tone and kept a firm hand on Ryan’s flexing arm.  
“So poetry...” he started. Chase just looked at them blankly. Jake had pulled out his magnifying glass, which Shane had got him for their science labs, which also now doubled as a vampire spotter. Theirs kids were really the best of both of them, he tried to think happy thoughts.  
“Well yeah, you know, my names not really chase, it’s Robert Frost, but I don’t go by that cause it’s so obvious, but I love his poetry.”  
He had doubled his grip on Ryan’s arm through that whole spiel.  
“Robert Frost,” Shane whispered, mystified that his worst nightmare had somehow materialized all together. 

“Oh” Ryan replied with his eyes narrowed.  
“How did you get our daughter to-“  
“Is that an Unsolved poster?”  
“Wha- yeah it is”  
“I have a different one at home. I was a huge fan of the two of you. Anna didn’t tell me you were her dads, and I got nervous.” Silence.  
“Really!” Ryan reached across the table and gave him hearty pats on the shoulder.  
“You know Anna’s not really a fan of any of it” Shane offered treacherously.  
“Oh, I know, I still watch it!”  
“So, uh, no pressure or anything, Chase-“ Ryan started  
“Don’t ask me, I can’t tell you.” This caught Shane off guard.  
“What?”  
“I can’t tell you if I’m a boogara or a Shaniac that’s too much pressure!” Ryan and Shane has bust into huge grins arguing the merits of ghost proof and the blaring of the spirit box.  
“I bet I can guess” came a small voice. They all turned to Jake. “You’re a shithead.”  
“Jake!”  
“That is a bad word!” Shane added.  
This had entertained Chase to no end and scared Anna more than anything else to find her family laughing along merrily with her boyfriend. She didn’t know what had possessed all of them. Her dads turned to her with big smiles.  
“You didn’t tell us he liked unsolved!”  
“She doesn’t appreciate the merits of ghost proof.” Chase that traitor added. She set down the mac and cheese and angrily shoveled it onto her plate. She had spent $30 on this top that her dad had helped her pick out and Chase was busy drooling over her dads. 

She was seeing him out the door later that night and tried not to be grouchy. Her dads could’ve been much worse. She always knew they couldn’t keep their promise to not be embarrassing and this was only half their fault. Chase turned to her and held her hand. “That was the coolest date I’ve ever been on, but you’re cooler.” he supplied with a lopsided smile. He planted a quick kiss on her cheek and walked off. Ryan crushed the poster he was holding and made to follow him. Shane grabbed him and pulled him back.  
“It’s ok Ry, he’s a good kid.”  
“Yeah yeah, he’s still a poet,” he looked down at the poster he’d accidentally squashed. It was one of their first ones they had kept all this time. It seemed like a different life all together. They had gone on a lot of journeys together. The best of it had been they had chose each other over and over again to do it with. The thing that scared him most back then were things like vampires. And he’d look back and standing there would be tall shy Shane Madej always ready save him from himself. Back then he couldn’t even imagine the terror he felt now of raising your kids and keeping them safe. He turned around saw Shane grabbing them some lasagna and wine. 

He looked up at Ryan and smiled at him again. He was also thinking about before, when the world around them was quiet and it all came back being just him and Ryan.


End file.
